SJRTD calling on local artists to help color in blank wall

STOCKTON - Local artists have a chance to see their talents writ large on walls downtown or in another part of the city.

Zachary K. Johnson

STOCKTON - Local artists have a chance to see their talents writ large on walls downtown or in another part of the city.

The winner of a contest sponsored by the San Joaquin Regional Transit District will get to create a mural on what now is empty wall space at the Downtown Transit Center. There have been no submissions yet, but officials are hoping artists might be waiting until the last minute to get their proposal in before a Friday deadline.

There are spots for two 21-foot by 3-foot murals along the wall facing rows of bus bays, but the district will soon have a smaller transfer station along Hammer Lane where it also wants murals, district spokesman Paul Rapp said.

"We've got a lot of blank canvases," he said. There will be only one contest winner, but that doesn't mean other submissions won't be able to find a spot in either the north Stockton station or share the wall space downtown, he said. "The more the merrier."

The theme for the mural is expected to show how public transit connects people and communities.

And having community-made art in the well-used transit station would be a reflection of the connection between the agency and the community, Rapp said. Reaching out to the community to supply public art is a new thing for the district, too, he said.

But the artwork won't be the first mural facing the bus bays. Recently, artists painted a block-long collection of murals across Channel Street. One of them shows an RTD bus with a smiling, friendly face.

And just down Channel at Hunter, a group recently completed a different mural. It's the latest effort in the "Dear Stockton" project for teens. So far, it's been best known for a photography project of people with short, uplifting notes written on themselves that begin with "Dear Stockton."

Community art such as this can tie artists to the community, organizer Benjamin Saffold said. They take ownership of their city "when they have ownership of an image or a message," said Saffold, who is also a board member of the Downtown Stockton Alliance and the Stockton Arts Commission.

And it can give the rest of the community that views the art that same positive feeling, he said.

The first-place winner of the transit district mural contest will get an Apple iPad as a prize, and the work will be seen on RTD's website and other press materials. The top three finalists will ride the bus free for a month.

Winners will be selected by a three-person committee with representatives from the Stockton Art League, the Tidewater Art Gallery and San Joaquin Delta College's Horton Gallery.